Nobody ruins an early morning cup of coffee quite like United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The hired Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) enforcer has snaked its way through countless neighborhoods in recent memory in order to track down fighters and sneak away with some fresh samples.
Like true PED assassins, USADA reps have been known to impede on fighters at rather unconvenient times. Just earlier this year, UFC middleweight contender and Army veteran Tim Kennedy held a USADA rep at gun point when he was driving slowly up his driveway. Unfortunately for these truly innocuous testers, Kennedy is not the last fighter to feel threatened by a suspicious arrival.
UFC welterweight veteran Jake Ellenbeger took to Twitter earlier this week to detail his recent experience with USADA, posting the following:
USADA guy wasn’t happy to see
a smith & wesson barrel at 545am— Jake Ellenberger (@EllenbergerMMA) October 27, 2016
You would think that USADA learned its lesson after running into someone of Kennedy’s caliber, but apparently the agency still has no issue in putting its reps in danger. Remember, USADA isn’t dealing with regular citizens here. Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, especially the elite ones competing in UFC, are the last people in the world you want to catch off guard.
At this point, with random drop ins still part of the USADA protocol, it’s only a matter of time before someone seriously gets hurt.